Albatross C.V/17

[Skyhook]

Thanks a zillion for all your encouraging comments!

I was on a holiday and after that i got sidetracked by an older Albatros. I think i made improvements to my usual techniques in depicting the wooden fuselage and decided to update a couple of my older scratchbuilds from the early 90’s. Those days I did Albatros C.XII and C.VII, but the references were much scarcer then; i made some decisions for colorschemes and some details, which better sources showed later to be wrong. For example, this C.XII had a fuselage colour that was basically light yellow and the front of the fuselage was way too small. I took the paint scheme and markings from the Munson book, so they were not too realistic either.

So here’s the corrected fuselage (i will repaint the wings next) now. And C.V/17 got the propeller blades, so it is very nearly ready, sans rigging and some weathering.

Cheers, Skyhook

F9D09A50-E59E-4FA6-BB19-4AE2B7DF3930 by Amiga Hassel, on Flickr

[Dutch522]

I'm getting a huge amount of enjoyment out of following these threads; as I posted on the other one, I'm a huge Albatros fan, and as much as I love the D.III and D.V it's wonderful to see the big 2-seaters getting their share of attention, especially by someone with skills like yours. And although the Munson books have been surpassed by more modern research, I still love them... Fighters 1914-1918 was the first "grownup" book I ever bought (and probably the first hardcover!).

Dutch

[Skyhook]

I'm getting a huge amount of enjoyment out of following these threads; as I posted on the other one, I'm a huge Albatros fan, and as much as I love the D.III and D.V it's wonderful to see the big 2-seaters getting their share of attention, especially by someone with skills like yours. And although the Munson books have been surpassed by more modern research, I still love them... Fighters 1914-1918 was the first "grownup" book I ever bought (and probably the first hardcover!).

Dutch

Thank you very much!  I love the Munson books too and actually the ”Bombers and reconnaisance planes 1914-1918” was my first too! As a six year old! Needless to say, thanks to those books, we are here . They are great and did a lot of great groundwork for others to build on. Hats of to Kenneth Munson, I say…

[RAGIII]

Really looking great! Your skills are showing in every update! Both builds are Fantastic!
RAGIII

[FAf]

Brilliant work! Both new and old look very nice!
/F

[torbiorn]

I just finished reading from first post to last, fantastic stuff. Don’t think I’ve seen any models of these types before, they’re good-looking designs, and your model do them justice.

 I have used this wing-making method several times, but never achieved as clean and neat results as you did here. Thanks for sharing, I will try to copy the way you do the wings and see what I can get.

[Skyhook]

Thanks, all! Finally I have found some time to get this one ready. I added a few photoetched details (DIY stuff, did a lot decades ago and have used them since then) to the fuselage. Next up some weathering, rigging and finally observers armament….

Stay tuned!

Cheers, Skyhook

920B2579-7F95-416C-BE82-AE70E28EF6F1 by Amiga Hassel, on Flickr

[Dirigible-Al]

Outstanding piece of Work.
Alan.

[NigelR]

Nice to see this one progressing again, she's really looking the part now....

[FAf]

As always I'm blown away by what you and other scratchbuilders can make out of plastic...  I mean, in my case most of the details are at least pre-formed and just needs putting together. Looks great!
/Fredrik

[RAGIII]

Looking really Awesome!
RAGIII

[Skyhook]

Thanks for the nice comments, again

Ok, so here you can see my simple tools and materials for the rigging
E49003D6-DD65-48EC-BD6C-553CA5B41EA5 by Amiga Hassel, on Flickr

Firstly, there’s a length of black sprue (this time from Airfix Halifax, of 1961 vintage!). It will be heat stretched over a candlelight.
You can see that the appropriate thickness is not so easy to do, so there’s several lenghts on the required piece of white paper (you need that for background, so you can see what you are doing). Of which only a few will do. Fortunately the material is free and it is virtually an endless supply.

Then i have very precise tweezers…i have filed and sanded them from a simple cosmetic tweezers from a local market. They must be totally flat…otherwise there will be kinks in the rigging.

I also need a tool for measuring the required lenghts (or close to it, i usually cut them a bit overlong and then cut them to the exact lenght after dry-fitting.

For the glue, i use just the normal PVA glue, thinned with water…but not too much.

9964CAC3-7679-4A76-936E-0CC526A2959A by Amiga Hassel, on Flickr

Now the landing wires and the undercarriage wires are in their place. When I have cut the wire to the correct lenght, i simply dip its ends to the glue and set it in its place. The glue allows a short moment for adjustments. You can see that the landing wires are sagging a bit, but i will tighten them with a heat from a match, that i light and put out (the right amount of glow/heat is easy to learn…by trial and effort).If done right it works fine, you just have to allow a few minutes for the pva glue to dry out properly first.  I have also used joss sticks and a adjustable soldering iron for the purpose. But now i wanted to do it with more simply, so i just used a match or two. Albatros C.V also has relatively easy rigging; the cabane takes care of a lot of the central part and there’s a lot fewer wires than you would expect. A well designed plane!

With every rigging session some wires are accidentally snapped or they melt when tightened, but then it is easy just to pull out the old one and do another. It is a game of patience . And it is practical to do the rigging in the easiest order, so you do not rig yourself into a corner!

F4A3E0D4-446E-487D-B11F-4092606019DF by Amiga Hassel, on Flickr

Now all the wires are in place, except the wires for the aileron control. Next  i will simulate some turnbuckles (with pva glue and paint) and then the armament for the observer. But that’s a bit later….
4D95DA63-1EA1-4E46-BAE6-CC53BC0AC161 by Amiga Hassel, on Flickr

[Dirigible-Al]

I think I have said this before, this is more of a tutorial than a build log which makes it all the more interesting to follow. It's nice to pick up tricks and hints on this thread and once again I have picked up another. Filing flat your tweezers, I have adapted crocodile clips but thanks for the tip on filing tweezers to suit the purpose. I think it's about time I adapted some of my tweezers.
Alan.

[NigelR]

Yay, someone else that uses stretched sprue! I always used that on my 1/72 builds as I could never properly clean up the holes if you drilled through the wings to use monofilament. Yours looks great, I used exactly the same approach and found it worked well for me. I used to use an old Historex pyrogravure tool to tighten the wires, worked perfectly every time with no melting because it gives off a constant low heat and has a fine tip.

[RAGIII]

The rigging looks terrific! Stretched sprue is a tried-and-true method! I still use it for some things on My 1/32nd scale builds as well as antenna wires in 1/72nd WW2 birds.
RAGIII